03:07 am - Deep Space Nine becomes awesome + TV Hugo voting thoughtsLacking other TV worth watching [[1]], we've been continuing to watch Deep Space Nine - while season 3 was better than seasons 1 or 2, the range of episodes merely went from bad (some unwatchably so, others not), to watchable but often not very good. So, we skipped ahead even more, and the season 3 finale was somewhat better. Then we started season 4, and wow did the show improve.

The first two episodes were when Michael Dorn joined the cast, and something between his presence and generally better writing and plotting made those two episodes considerably better than anything previous. Tonight we watched S04Ep03 The Visitor. I vaguely remember watching the first two episodes of season 4, but I didn't remember anything about them and could easily be remembering later DS:9 episodes with lots of Klingons. However, I'm certain I never saw The Visitor before, and teaotter and I were both deeply impressed (amberite is out of town for a few days).

Yes, the abundant clichés about writers were clichéd in a very Hollywood fashion, and the old age makeup wasn't very good, but the actor playing the older Jake Sisko was impressively good and the episode was exceptionally well done. This ranks up there with the TNG episode Darmok and a handful of other Star Trek episodes as ones that I will happily watch multiple times.

I remember the last 2 or 3 seasons of DS 9 being quite good, but I also remember most of the best episodes being stories about war, which was also true of the two-part season 4 premier, but this episode wasn't, and so I'm thinking that perhaps the later seasons of Deep Space Nine were mostly quite good regardless of their content.

Thinking about TV also reminded me of my thoughts on voting for the Hugos for TV episodes. I list my votes below the cut. I watch the nominated episode of Grimm, which I expected to dislike, because I tried the show when it first came out and gave up after 5 episodes, in large part because the werewolf was the only breath of life in an otherwise lifeless and dull show. Instead, I liked "Once We Were Gods" - the addition of more characters helped and I very much liked the Grimm "scooby gang". We currently have lots of TV ranging from fairly to very good to watch, so I'm not certain I need another series to watch, but if that changes, I'll likely start. It wasn't as good as the season 2 finale for Orphan Black, but it was definitely better than any of the other (I'm not counting Game of Thrones, because I find it unwatchably violent and unpleasant).

Also, I decided not to give any vote for the Doctor Who episode "Listen" because I really don't want it to win. I thought back about when I watched it and remembered that it was the first episode of that season where (to me at least) the Doctor's truly hideous level of misogyny towards Clara became simply too glaring to ignore or dismiss. I'm fine with The Doctor being a jerk, both in general and to his companions, but when he starts acting like a particularly nasty and misogynist ex towards his companion (including spouting an abundance of vile pick-up-artist-style negging), I want nothing further to do with the show

1) Orphan Black: "By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried"2) Grimm: "Once We Were Gods"3) No Award4) The Flash: "Pilot"5) Game of Thrones: "The Mountain and the Viper"(no vote) Doctor Who: "Listen"

[[1]] Thankfully, Hannibal & Defiance return soon, with luck Sense8 will be good, and Dark Matter might even prove good, despite there already being one show worth watching on Syfy (Defiance)